Jennifer Marek
The Gift of Conversation

The calendar is counting down as we gather with family, friends and co-workers during this Holiday Season. Whether you’re traveling to see family, celebrating with friends and enjoying Holiday parties with co-workers - we know there are many different story lines, personality preferences, diverse ways of seeing and understanding, and varying thoughts, views and opinions when interacting with others.

Our Leadership Coaching support is more than wishing you, “Good Luck,” as you engage and navigate your conversations - Our Leadership Coaching reminder is:

 “You ALWAYS have the POWER to DECIDE

how you want to lead yourself when interacting with others.”

The Gift of Conversation
Jennifer Marek
Manage Your Mindset on Behalf of Your Time

Last week we mentioned the most helpful question to ask when new tasks and responsibilities come up within your team:

is this urgent or is this important?

In fact, that question was posed earlier this year in a cohort we were coaching through The Engagement Blueprint. The question reinforced how important it is to ask – it’s on everyone’s mind when given a new task, project or goal.

It’s likely that most of the work you do is very important. At the same time, it may or may not be urgent. Click here for a quick coaching video on how to discern. Considering the time of day you have your best energy may influence how urgent a certain task, project or goal is. Considering your energy will help you to prioritize so you can utilize your mindset, behaviors and strategy within your peak performance times. (Note: we all have peak performance times.)

Manage Your Mindset on Behalf of Your Time

The Gift of Conversation

The Gift of Conversation

The calendar is counting down as we gather with family, friends and co-workers during this Holiday Season. Whether you’re traveling to see family, celebrating with friends and enjoying Holiday parties with co-workers - we know there are many different story lines, personality preferences, diverse ways of seeing and understanding, and varying thoughts, views and opinions when interacting with others.

Our Leadership Coaching support is more than wishing you, “Good Luck,” as you engage and navigate your conversations - Our Leadership Coaching reminder is:

 “You ALWAYS have the POWER to DECIDE

how you want to lead yourself when interacting with others.”

Continue Your December with Intentional Choices

Continue Your December with Intentional Choices

Every day you have choices that influence and impact your life experiences and outcomes at work. Who you CHOOSE to be and what you CHOOSE to do affects both your personal and professional life.

As you know, we are always here to support you and want the best for you! We are excited to share our holiday gift to you this year as we’ve created our ‘Your Daily Choices’ December Calendar.

Start Your December with Intentional Choices

Start Your December with Intentional Choices

Every day you have choices that influence and impact your life experiences and outcomes at work. Who you CHOOSE to be and what you CHOOSE to do affects both your personal and professional life.

As you know, we are always here to support you and want the best for you! We are excited to share our holiday gift to you this year as we’ve created our ‘Your Daily Choices’ December Calendar.

"Gratitude is always EVOLVING"

"Gratitude is always EVOLVING"

Every day, we have a choice for gratitude to exist and live within us.

Gratitude is always available and forever EVOLVING.

 When being responsible for our own Gratitude, we can begin from within – Our Inner Gratitude and the words we speak to ourselves influences our outcomes.

When being responsible within every interaction, our foundation of Conversational Gratitude influences our experiences – The function of our brain activity inspires all of our interactions with others.

When being responsible for our daily practices and strategies – Our Attitude of Gratitude will multiply our happiness when living and working with others.

 May we ALL enjoy our Holiday’s with the tools and resources we have available to us and may we stay in the mindset of GRATITUDE.

ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

“Combining an attitude of gratitude with what is important to you internally and externally will guide your actions both personally and professionally.”

-The Engagement Blueprint

As we learned from the TC&A newsletter in week 1 about Inner Gratitude and week 2 about Conversational Gratitude. We trust you are seeing how gratitude influences your inner words that you speak to yourself and how conversational gratitude influences each part of your brain when interacting and connecting with others. 

Your inner being and your brain are meant to work together, in order to create genuine and transparent interactions with those you care about, those you engage and work with and those you barely know – Your starting place of gratitude influences everyone and everything around you.

Conversational Gratitude

Conversational Gratitude

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said,

 people will forget what you did, 

but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

-Maya Angelou

 

The quote above by Maya Angelou is one of our favorite quotes at TC&A. It is a mindset that Chelsea and I seek to lead our own selves, as we coach and lead our clients.

The ability to raise our own consciousness and mindfulness that everything we communicate has the power to positively or negatively “trigger” physical and emotional changes within our brains and our bodies – truly, one of the most important things we can learn when building relationships through our conversations and communication.

One of my mentors through learning, podcasts and her book, “Conversational Intelligence – How Great Leaders BUILD TRUST and Get Extraordinary Results” by Judith E. Glaser supports the neuroscience within conversations. The foundation of understanding how our five brains are hardwired for supporting our ability to interact with others impacts our outcomes in a positive or negative way. 

Your Choice for Inner Gratitude

Your Choice for Inner Gratitude

“Your Internal Words Shape WHO You Are.”

– Tess Cox

 Welcome to our TC&A November Newsletter.

As we embrace a new month and enter into the celebration season of Thanksgiving and the Holidays, I (Tess) am going to begin by taking us on an inner journey of gratitude. 

It’s probable that my age has something to do with my thought process and desire to write about an inner journey of gratitude. I’ve learned over my lifetime, that the way I choose to speak to myself inwardly, shapes and forms my outcomes. I have found that my internal dialogue about myself and who I am … MATTERS. 

All of Your CONFIDENT Choices Matter!

All of Your CONFIDENT Choices Matter!

“A confident leader is one who is able to celebrate the wins of others,

compete with good intent, have courageous dialogue to enhance relationships

and stay resilient during challenging times.”

– Tess Cox, The Leadership Blueprint

As the month of October newsletters come to a close, we turn our focus towards CONFIDENCE. We are reminded that Confidence is a natural byproduct of living well within our Character, Competency, Consistency & Creativity.

Think about the foundation of your Character or the way you lead yourself with your Competency, Consistency and Creating positive relationships. Where might you feel the most confident within one of these four C’s?

Your Inner Pillars of Strength: Competence, Consistency, Creativity

Your Inner Pillars of Strength: Competence, Consistency, Creativity

Welcome back to ‘Your Choice,’ we are so happy to be on this journey with you, where we share knowledge and insights into building who you are as a leader and as a human. We believe in your abilities to experience the best of outcomes and your opportunities to turn all of your desires into reality. One thing we know to be true: every desire we want to turn into a reality, needs a strong foundation.

Sample Character qualities are: Honest, Trustworthy, Reliable, Respectful, Fair and Resilient.

Last week, we shared the story of The Leadership Blueprint: Becoming the Architect of Your Life & Work and encouraged you to tune into your Character qualities. Your Character is the foundation from which everything else you want in life and work is built upon. Your transparency with who you are, will be experienced with how sustainable your foundation is. So, it matters most to you to be truthful, open and honest with the strength of your Character qualities.

With a Solid Foundation, Opportunities Expand

With a Solid Foundation, Opportunities Expand

Welcome back! This week we are taking you back to 2017 when Tess’s first book: The Leadership Blueprint: Becoming the Architect of Your Life & Work was published. Tess had a vision that the principles of the book would be the foundation for TC&A and her life moving forward. Not surprisingly, her intuition was correct. 

I’m excited to share how I, Chelsea, went ALL IN with the 5 C’s when I chose to transform my life back in 2016. I was at a crossroads after an all-consuming work and life adventure led me to complete burn out. I had a difficult choice to make. 

Keep going as I was….succeeding in important hotel roles and achieving external success

OR

 Take the path less traveled…go inward, learn more about the core of who I was and start to pave a new path forward where true success was found internally from my own being

What happened next was almost… unbelievable! 

The Foundation of Opportunity

The Foundation of Opportunity

Welcome to our first Fall Newsletter of 2024! We are grateful to be in your inbox every Monday with ‘Your Choice.’ Our intention is to provide you with support, encouragement and opportunity to grow in who you are, grow in your abilities to lead and manage your team and experience overall growth in your business and life.

As you read about the TC&A Origin story in September, for the month of October, we are expanding upon the opportunities of our business story. Over the years, we have had many learning, growth and celebratory experiences in leading TC&A, we trust our intentions and our encouragement will support you creating your own opportunities. 

The Full Circle of TC&A

The Full Circle of TC&A

This quote tends to summarize our TC&A experience and existence:

"Keep Believing in Your Potential.

Keep Utilizing Your Strengths.

Continue to be a Lifelong Learner.

~

You will find that you will experience

 more than you ever IMAGINED."

- Tess

Because of YOU - You have given TC&A more than we could ever have IMAGINED. And, by serving YOU, we continue to IMAGINE EVEN MORE…

Chelsea and I LIVE every day of our LIVES to LEAD ourselves, FIRST, so that we can LEAD & COACH YOU. 

Emerging Opportunities

The TC&A Origin Story Continued...

Remember from week 1, I was riding the wave of great opportunities within Leadership Development and Coaching as an Independent Contractor with my mentor and his company.

Remember from week 2, HARD decisions were made from CEO’s and my mentor. The HARD decisions were beyond my control. It was a very difficult and, challenging time. And, I had a choice what to do and how to move through the HARD.

What was interesting – I was still contracted with the non-profit and multi-faceted world of Agri-Business. 

What was interesting even further – as individuals graduated from the program, many requested further Leadership Coaching. They were finding it difficult to transition from being in a learning environment with a full focus on personal and professional growth and development and being in their workplace of roles and responsibilities where the company or organization had not changed – BUT, they had changed! TC&A had a new vision and a new purpose.

What was even more interesting to me and the opportunity I saw

– Leadership Coaching has a place in every workplace!

Wherever there are people and all of their differences within their stories, education, life experiences, relationships and work experiences, there is an OPPORTUNITY for Leadership Coaching. Along with all of the other opportunities, in support of Leadership Development with Individual Coaching, Triangle Coaching, Team Building, Seminars and Team Retreats.

When TC&A began over 8 years ago, the focus was to bring Individual Coaching and Team Building to businesses as ownership and leadership saw the need to develop their employee’s and teams. I am grateful that 8 years later, more and more business owners and leadership understands the benefits of developing themselves, their employees and their teams with our wide range of TC&A Leadership Development Services. 

What is most meaningful to TC&A is – Serving you, our clients. What a privilege to serve you and to support your journeys within your roles and responsibilities and within your personal life, also. Everything we bring to Leadership Coaching and Development, we practice ourselves, as well.

Over the years, as Chelsea has joined TC&A, we have learned that something new can be birthed when we are willing to serve others.

We’re curious, is there something in your work and life that you have created when seeking to serve others?

KEY Words to Remember from our TC&A story:

Interesting, Focus, Meaningful, Growth, Something New, Serve

What are KEY Words that stand out to you?

We are here to support you and/or your organization in the ongoing journey of being the leader of yourself, first. We encourage you to engage with our opportunities, listed here, and look forward to your continued growth and expansion in all ways.

A STORY OF CHALLENGES & NEW OPPORTUNITIES

A STORY OF CHALLENGES & NEW OPPORTUNITIES

THE ORIGIN STORY OF TC&A Continued…

Upon working over seven years with my, (Tess) mentor and leader of his company, we were enjoying ALL of the benefits of serving our clients. We both loved the Leadership Development, Coaching and Training that we were doing and the influence we were having upon the lives of leadership. It truly was a transformational time for many who were learning more about leading themselves within their roles and responsibilities.

Then, we experienced a turn of events simultaneously. Within weeks of one another, the high-end Tech Company and the Hospital hired new CEO’s, which we knew, as we were a part of the conversations. Within a short period of time…both of the CEO’s, of the Tech company and Hospital had different ideas, plans and visions for their organizations, which was not predicted due to our conversations. And, they both made a decision about our contracts that were up for renewal - they were NOT going to be renewed! With respect, both the Tech company and Hospital made budgetary decisions versus what was going to be best for their leadership overall.

THE ORIGIN STORY OF TC&A – A REFLECTION

THE ORIGIN STORY OF TC&A – A REFLECTION

We rarely DO this!

We rarely talk about ourselves. 

We do share insights from our experiences with you, our clients.

With our new TC&A Catalog of Services, I (Tess) thought it would be supportive of your journey, to read the origin story of TC&A throughout this month of September – The beginning of when we learned to “Lead Ourselves, FIRST.”

Years ago, before I started Tess Cox & Associates, I was working as an Independent Contractor/Coach. I joined opportunities to lead and Coach for a high-end Tech Company that was world-wide and based in New York City. I enjoyed opportunities in the health-care industry, coaching Dr’s, Nurses and Director/Managerial support in Rancho Mirage, California. And, I had the good fortune of working with a non-profit organization with a focus on revitalizing their curriculum and adding Leadership Coaching for up-and-coming leaders in the multi-faceted world of Agri-Business throughout California.

Your Strengths Are Your Future

Your Strengths Are Your Future

Welcome back to ‘Your Choice,’ where we are spending the month of August focusing on your competitive advantage. In week one, we encouraged you to identify what your competitive advantage is in your workplace.

This month, as we continue to be inspired by the Paris Olympics, we’ve listened to the words that describe the athletes STRENGTHS. We have heard the following:

  • His story is one of resilience

  • She has trained and worked to be physically strong

  • He has worked with his coach to be mentally strong

  • Before her competition she states that she visually sees her great outcomes

  • His mindset never gives up

  • This team has a deep belief in themselves

  • Every Olympian who has gathered at the 2024 Olympics is here because of their family, friends and their community that have supported them to be here…..

Creating Your Competitive Advantage

Creating Your Competitive Advantage

As the Olympics are in full swing this August, we are inspired to think about the competitive advantage athletes have as they live out their life long dreams in Paris. I (Chelsea) find myself sentimental for my competitive athlete years as I chose from the age of 4 to dedicate myself to gymnastics and become an NCAA gymnast. I was driven by my passion of being physically strong, working together with my mind to compete both individually and as a team. I attribute much of my competitive advantage today to the drive and determination I learned from my earlier years.

We encourage you to think about your own leadership, your team and your organization, "Where is your competitive advantage?"